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2015 Advanced Micro Devices ( Amd )

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In 2015 Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) was in a difficult position. The once formidable competitor in multiple facets of the personal computer market had seen its strong profits turn negative and its debt totals rise. The company was finding it difficult to compete across multiple markets due to a number of factors. The most important of which was a series of weak product offerings, which created a larger gap in the quality of AMD’s products when compared with the competition.

AMD had once held large market shares in both the CPU (central processing unit) and GPU (graphics processing unit) markets. When each of these products are combined in the personal computer users are able to take on more demanding tasks such as video editing, gaming, …show more content…

In the early 1980’s, IBM chose to purchase Intel’s x86 chip architecture and the DOS software operating system designed by Microsoft (Singer, 2005). IBM insisted that Intel provide a second source of chips as to avoid over dependence on one supplier. To accommodate IBM’s request Intel and AMD signed a technology exchange agreement to make AMD that second supplier (“Company History”). This agreement limited AMD’s access to only the second generation or 286 chip technology. In the 1980’s Intel attempted to eliminate AMD from the process with the 386 family of chips (Singer, 2005). AMD filed for legal action claiming that this was an attempt to create a monopoly and settled in 1987, but this would not be the last time that AMD would seek legal action to prevent Intel from creating a monopoly.

In 1991, AMD filed an antitrust complaint again claiming that Intel was engaged in unlawful acts designed to secure and maintain a monopoly. The case was settled in 1992 and the court ruled in AMD’s favor by awarding $10 million as well as the ability to license Intel’s 386 designs without paying a royalty. Finally, in 1995 AMD settled the rest of its legal disputes by agreeing to a deal that gave AMD a shared interest in the x86 chip design, which is still being used today in personal

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